Urban expansion in Campos do Jordão stimulated by tourism

Abstract

Usually a tourist city offers two distinct landscapes: that of work, related to urban everyday activities, considered negative in the eyes of tourists who perceive its poor housing and industries; and the desirable scenery of a pleasant city encompassed by leisure areas, reminiscent of the countryside. The built environment is planned for consumption, where tourist activities and the city itself in a certain way are seen as merchandise (SILVA, 1999). This scenery, once turned into a product, must have quality, because tourism demands “edenic cities", an image sold by advertising campaigns with strong visual appeal, opposing that of the urban reality. According to Lefebvre (1991) tourism is one of the deviations of citizens' right to the city, as it denies the real cityscape with its deteriorated, ugly, and segregated areas, hiding the urban daily life. In Brazilian cities, due to the lack of public funds, urban infrastructure provision is always delayed, arriving after land occupation, and leading to insufficient water and sewer services, causing environmental and social problems. This conflicting situation is opposed to the tourist market demand that deals with "perfect cities", and beautification in terms of urban quality. In order to solve this conflict between the real city and the city of imagination, tourist entrepreneurs build resorts, hotels, hostels, inns and commercial centers served by urban infrastructure that the actual city cannot offer, treating thus such areas of imagination so that they can be safe and sound for the new visitors. In this way a bubble of quality is created in the middle of the actual city. Silva (2004) states that the contradictions between work and leisure, holidays and everyday life, production and consumption, city and countryside can many times be overcome by the construction of hotels, parks and amusement complexes that offer the citizens a mix of city and country, urban facilities and contact with nature, leading thus to an actual city’s mischaracterization.